1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a device and a method for treating containers filled with liquid, such as for example beverage bottles or beverage cans. In this case, part of the heat exchanger is realized by a heat pump being provided between one or more segments of the treating zone and those of the cooling zone.
2. Background Information
Background information is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily admit that subsequently mentioned information and publications are prior art.
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine, which is often a rotary filling machine, with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material.
Some beverage bottling plants may possibly comprise filling arrangements that receive a liquid beverage material from a toroidal or annular vessel, in which a supply of liquid beverage material is stored under pressure by a gas. The toroidal vessel may also be connected to at least one external reservoir or supply of liquid beverage material by a conduit or supply line. In some circumstances it may even be possible that a beverage bottling plant has two external supply reservoirs, each of which may be configured to store either the same liquid beverage product or different products. These reservoirs could possibly be connected to the toroidal or annular vessel by corresponding supply lines, conduits, or other arrangements. It is also possible that the external supply reservoirs could be in the form of simple storage tanks, or in the form of liquid beverage product mixers.
A wide variety of types of filling elements are used in filling machines in beverage bottling or container filling plants for dispensing a liquid product into bottles, cans or similar containers, including but not limited to filling processes that are carried out under counterpressure for the bottling of carbonated beverages. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine.
After a filling process has been completed, the filled beverage bottles are transported or conveyed to a closing machine, which is often a rotary closing machine. A revolving or rotary machine comprises a rotor, which revolves around a central, vertical machine axis. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. A transporting or conveying arrangement can utilize transport star wheels as well as linear conveyors. A closing machine closes bottles by applying a closure, such as a screw-top cap or a bottle cork, to a corresponding bottle mouth. Closed bottles are then usually conveyed to an information adding arrangement, wherein information, such as a product name or a manufacturer's information or logo, is applied to a bottle. A closing station and information adding arrangement may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement. Bottles are then sorted and packaged for shipment out of the plant.
Many beverage bottling plants may also possibly comprise a rinsing arrangement or rinsing station to which new, non-return and/or even return bottles are fed, prior to being filled, by a conveyer arrangement, which can be a linear conveyor or a combination of a linear conveyor and a starwheel. Downstream of the rinsing arrangement or rinsing station, in the direction of travel, rinsed bottles are then transported to the beverage filling machine by a second conveyer arrangement that is formed, for example, by one or more starwheels that introduce bottles into the beverage filling machine.
It is a further possibility that a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can be controlled by a central control arrangement, which could be, for example, a computerized control system that monitors and controls the operation of the various stations and mechanisms of the beverage bottling plant.
The present application relates to a device and a method for pasteurizing containers filled with liquid, such as for example beverage bottles or beverage cans. In this case, part of the heat exchanger is realized by a heat pump being provided between one or more segments of the pasteurizing zone and those of the cooling zone.
Pasteurizing systems and methods for preserving foodstuffs in the beverage industry are known and are used in multiple ways. In the case of these systems, containers such as bottles, cans, bags, or similar containers are conducted in a substantially continuous manner through a pasteurizing device in a ready flow or one after the other.
These pasteurizing devices and methods are structured in such a manner that for gentle heating and cooling, the liquid-filled containers are conveyed through segments with respectively downwardly orientated temperatures. The pasteurizing zone, which can also be segmented and in which the temperature is essentially held at a suitably high level, is positioned between the segmented heating and cooling zone. In the interior of the device, the containers are sprayed or showered with liquid so as to realize the heating, cooling or the isotherm state.
The pasteurizing process or the hygenisation, in this case, is substantially dependent on the temperature and on the dwell time. As the temperature of the closed containers can be increased in a limited manner, the dwell time has to or should be increased, which means that the pasteurizing devices are structurally very large. In normal operation, they have a large liquid volume with a high energy content. Conducting the liquid of the segments of the heating and cooling zone in a suitable manner back and forth in order to recover as much heat as possible is also known.
The problem of one possible process is that the pasteurizing devices have to be structurally very large to cool the pasteurized and filled containers in the desired recuperative manner; however, it is possible to achieve a cooling temperature that is a little above the temperature of the first heating segment.
To save energy and have better controllability, some pasteurizing devices do not to shower the filled containers in the pasteurizing zone in normal operation and to achieve flexible optimum control by means of suitable interconnection and irrigation of the collecting liquid. As there is no energy application in the pasteurizing zone in normal operation, it is to be assumed that to achieve identical preservation, a comparable amount of energy has to or should be brought into the heating zone, which means that, if anything, the entire device increases in size.
Some pasteurizing devices connect the pasteurizing system to the filling system in such a manner that the container filling is preheated and the closed containers enter the pasteurizing process at a slightly increased temperature. A connection of this type may possibly reduce the end temperature at the outlet, however the transferable heat quantity is limited as the temperature of the liquid to be filled must or should not be increased in an arbitrary manner upstream of the filing process in order to prevent, restrict, and/or minimize, amongst other things, serious frothing.